It is hard to switch a Smith, but I figured I toss in my recent experience with Marc over at Spartan Rifles in San Jose.
First, I waited way to long to decide to rebarrel, in kind of a panic I called Spartan. Long funny story here, but he was a “Hider” who was kinda involved (in a good way) with the incident that inspired one of the all time great creations by @Lowlight.
Anyway, Marc hooked me up with two super fast rebarrels and an excellent bedding job on a AICS AX.
The first barreled action was brought to the range and most groups were ragged holes with factory Prime. I like Prime, but generally the 130 6.5 is a bit more finicky and isn’t like running 175s in a 308. Here is the Very Frist group using after rough zeroing with the Prime.
With the second 6.5 I wanted to run 123 Bergers over 3000 FPS with a 24” barrel and 130VLDs at 2900.
I did a powder work up to find the speed I was looking for but have not yet fussed with seating depth to shrink the groups. Here are the two groups that shows the speed I wanted.
123 Lapua Scenars with Varget @ 3095fps 24” barrel- above the 5 round charge test, is one of the initial 3 rounds shot (charge weight 4 of 10) vrs the 5 round group shown (charge weight 8 of 10). Once I run 3, I go back and shoot the last two to confirm POI on the promising charge weights. I load 5 of each charge sorted in an 50 round MTM box. If the POI is moving around, or a scatter node, I don’t go back and shoot the final two, so I usually end up with a lot of unshot rounds.
The kinda Finicky 130VLD 2920 with H4350 24” barrel
I am very happy with the short turnaround, super helpful consultation he offered and his work. All in all, fairly amazing to see the two guns shooting with no real tunning of the loads, just powder value to get the speed I wanted.
Give @MarcS @ Spartan Rifles a call if your considering some work. But not before he finishes my third rebarrel that I am excited and waiting to shoot
LOL
An important note, as far as I can tell Marc (the owner) seems to be hand fitting every barrel himself!
Edited to add contact info:
Spartan Rifles
Marc
https://spartanrifles.com/
408-451-9850
[email protected]
First, I waited way to long to decide to rebarrel, in kind of a panic I called Spartan. Long funny story here, but he was a “Hider” who was kinda involved (in a good way) with the incident that inspired one of the all time great creations by @Lowlight.
Anyway, Marc hooked me up with two super fast rebarrels and an excellent bedding job on a AICS AX.
The first barreled action was brought to the range and most groups were ragged holes with factory Prime. I like Prime, but generally the 130 6.5 is a bit more finicky and isn’t like running 175s in a 308. Here is the Very Frist group using after rough zeroing with the Prime.
With the second 6.5 I wanted to run 123 Bergers over 3000 FPS with a 24” barrel and 130VLDs at 2900.
I did a powder work up to find the speed I was looking for but have not yet fussed with seating depth to shrink the groups. Here are the two groups that shows the speed I wanted.
123 Lapua Scenars with Varget @ 3095fps 24” barrel- above the 5 round charge test, is one of the initial 3 rounds shot (charge weight 4 of 10) vrs the 5 round group shown (charge weight 8 of 10). Once I run 3, I go back and shoot the last two to confirm POI on the promising charge weights. I load 5 of each charge sorted in an 50 round MTM box. If the POI is moving around, or a scatter node, I don’t go back and shoot the final two, so I usually end up with a lot of unshot rounds.
The kinda Finicky 130VLD 2920 with H4350 24” barrel
I am very happy with the short turnaround, super helpful consultation he offered and his work. All in all, fairly amazing to see the two guns shooting with no real tunning of the loads, just powder value to get the speed I wanted.
Give @MarcS @ Spartan Rifles a call if your considering some work. But not before he finishes my third rebarrel that I am excited and waiting to shoot
LOLAn important note, as far as I can tell Marc (the owner) seems to be hand fitting every barrel himself!
Edited to add contact info:
Spartan Rifles
Marc
https://spartanrifles.com/
408-451-9850
[email protected]
Last edited:
